The present invention relates generally to sandwich structures and more particularly to a sandwich structure including a core having alternating peaks and valleys, and one or more outer sheets including grooves.
Metallic sandwich structures having outer and core layers are known in the industry. For example, reference is made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 7,752,729 entitled “Method for Shaping a Metallic Flat Material, Method for the Manufacture of a Composite Material and Devices for Performing these Methods” which issued to Faehrrolfes et al. on Jul. 13, 2010; 7,648,058 entitled “Formed Metal Core Sandwich Structure and Method and System for Making Same” which issued to Straza on Jan. 19, 2010, and is commonly owned herewith; and 3,525,663 entitled “Anticlastic Cellular Core Structure having Biaxial Rectilinear Truss Patterns” which issued to Hale on Aug. 25, 1970; all of which are incorporated by reference herein. The Hale patent, however, teaches the use of vertically openable stamping dies to form nodes in a heated core sheet, with the objective of obtaining the same flexual and shear strength in all planes. A core stamped in this fashion is prone to tearing during node-forming and the node pattern is symmetrical. Furthermore, the Faehrrolfes patent disadvantageously requires a lubricant during its elongated wave shaping of the core to reducing tearing, which creates later problems with desired adhesive bonding of the outer sheets. It is also noteworthy that Faehrrolfes requires a complex mechanism in order to continuously adjust the forming roll positioning during shaping of each workpiece, which leads to tolerance accuracy concerns and rigidity inconsistencies within a single part as well as part-to-part. The Faehrrolfes wave pattern is also symmetrical in all directions. Additionally, the outer sheets in these patents are all flat after assembled to the core sheet.